o  ::;  ;•-  ;  \\  <  r.  ;  :  -  ;. 


rr    WALDO    EMERSON 


University  of  California  •  Berkeley 
CLAIRE  GIANNINI  HOFFMAN  COLLECTION 


COMPENSATION 

BEING  AN  ESSAY 
AS  WRITTEN  BY 

RALPH   WALDO 
EMERSON 


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DONE  INTO  A  PRINTED  BOOK  BY 
THE  ROYCROFTERS,  AT  THE  SHOP, 
WHICH  IS  IN  EAST  AURORA,  ERIE 
COUNTY,  NEW  YORK,  U.S.A.  MCMIV 


Copyright,  1903,  by  The  Roycrofters,  East  Aurora,  N.  Y. 


In  this  God's  world,  with  its  wild-whirling 
eddies  and  mad^  foam-oceans,  where  men 
and  nations  perish  as  if  without  law,  and 
judgment  for  an  unjust  thing  is  sternly 
delayed,  dost  thou  think  that  there  is  there- 
fore no  justice  ?  *  '  I  tell  thee  again 
there  is  nothing  else  but  justice.  One  strong 
thing  I  find  here  below :  the  just  thing,  the 
true  thing. —  Thomas  Carlyle. 


COMPENSATION 


VER  since  I  was  a  boy 
I  have  wished  to  write 
a  discourse  on  Com- 
pensation; for  it  had 
seemed  to  me  when 
very  young  that  on  this 
subject  Life  was  ahead  of  theology 
and  the  people  knew  more  than  the 
preachers  taught.  The  documents,  too, 
from  which  the  doctrine  is  to  be 
drawn,  charmed  my  fancy  by  their 
endless  variety,  and  lay  always  be- 
fore me,  even  in  sleep ;  for  they  are 
the  tools  in  our  hands,  the  bread  in 
our  basket,  the  transactions  of  the 
street,  the  farm  and  the  dwelling- 
house;  the  greetings,  the  relations, 
the  debts  and  credits,  the  influence  of 
character,  the  nature  and  endowment 
of  all  men.  It  seemed  to  me  also  that 
in  it  might  be  shown  men  a  ray  of 
divinity,  the  present  action  of  the 

i 


on  Soul  of  this  world,  clean  from  all  vestige 
Compensation  of  tradition ;  and  so  the  heart  of  man  might 
be  bathed  by  an  inundation  of  eternal  love, 
conversing  with  that  which  he  knows  was 
always  and  always  must  be,  because  it 
really  is  now.  It  appeared  moreover  that  if 
this  doctrine  could  be  stated  in  terms  with 
any  resemblance  to  those  bright  intuitions 
in  which  this  truth  is  sometimes  revealed 
to  us,  it  would  be  a  star  in  many  dark  hours 
and  crooked  passages  in  our  journey,  that 
would  not  suffer  us  to  lose  our  way. 
I  was  lately  confirmed  in  these  desires  by 
hearing  a  sermon  at  church.  The  preacher, 
a  man  esteemed  for  his  orthodoxy,  unfolded 
in  the  ordinary  manner  the  doctrine  of  the 
Last  Judgment.  He  assumed  that  judgment 
is  not  executed  in  this  world;  that  the 
wicked  are  successful ;  that  the  good  are 
miserable ;  and  then  urged  from  reason  and 
from  Scripture  a  compensation  to  be  made 
to  both  parties  in  the  next  life.  No  offence 
appeared  to  be  taken  by  the  congregation 
at  this  doctrine.  As  far  as  I  could  observe, 
2 


when  the  meeting  broke  up  they  separated  (Esfgap  on 
without  remark  on  the  sermon.  Compensation 

Yet  what  was  the  import  of  this  teaching? 
What  did  the  preacher  mean  by  saying  that 
the  good  are  miserable  in  the  present  life  ? 
Was  it  that  houses  and  lands,  offices,  wine, 
horses,  dress,  luxury,  are  had  by  unprin- 
cipled men,  whilst  the  saints  are  poor  and 
despised ;  and  that  a  compensation  is  to  be 
made  to  these  last  hereafter,  by  giving  them 
the  like  gratifications  another  day, — bank- 
stock  and  doubloons,  venison  and  cham- 
pagne? This  must  be  the  compensation  in- 
tended ;  for  what  else?  Is  it  that  they  are  to 
have  leave  to  pray  and  praise?  to  love  and 
serve  men  ?  Why,  that  they  can  do  now. 
The  legitimate  inference  the  disciple  would 
draw  was,  "  We  are  to  have  such  a  good 
time  as  the  sinners  have  now;" — or,  to 
push  it  to  its  extreme  import, — "  You  sin 
now,  we  shall  sin  by-and-by;  we  would 
sin  now,  if  we  could ;  not  being  successful 
we  expect  our  revenge  to-morrow." 
The  fallacy  lay  in  the  immense  concession 

3 


on  that  the  bad  are  successful ;  that  justice  is 
Compensation  not  done  now.  The  blindness  of  the  preacher 
consisted  in  deferring  to  the  base  estimate 
of  the  market  of  what  constitutes  a  manly 
success,  instead  of  confronting  and  con- 
victing the  world  from  the  truth ;  announ- 
cing the  Presence  of  the  Soul;  the  omnipo- 
tence of  the  Will ;  and  so  establishing  the 
standard  of  good  and  ill,  of  success  and 
falsehood,  and  summoning  the  dead  to  its 
present  tribunal. 

I  find  a  similar  base  tone  in  the  popular 
religious  works  of  the  day,  and  the  same 
doctrines  assumed  by  the  literary  men  when 
occasionally  they  treat  the  related  topics.  I 
think  that  our  popular  theology  has  gained 
in  decorum,  and  not  in  principle,  over  the 
superstitions  it  has  displaced.  But  men  are 
better  than  this  theology.  Their  daily  life 
gives  it  the  lie.  Every  ingenuous  and  aspir- 
ing soul  leaves  the  doctrine  behind  him  in 
his  own  experience,  and  all  men  feel  some- 
times the  falsehood  which  they  cannot 
demonstrate.  For  men  are  wiser  than  they 

4 


know.  That  which  they  hear  in  schools  and  <&&&w  on 
pulpits  without  afterthought,  if  said  in  con-  Compensation 
versation  would  probably  be  questioned  in 
silence.  If  a  man  dogmatize  in  a  mixed 
company  on  Providence  and  the  divine  laws, 
he  is  answered  by  a  silence  which  conveys 
well  enough  to  an  observer  the  dissatisfac- 
tion of  the  hearer,  but  his  incapacity  to 
make  his  own  statement. 
I  shall  attempt  in  this  and  the  following 
chapter  to  record  some  facts  that  indicate 
the  path  of  the  law  of  Compensation;  happy 
beyond  my  expectation  if  I  shall  truly  draw 
the  smallest  arc  of  this  circle. 
Polarity,  or  action  and  reaction,  we  meet  in 
every  part  of  nature ;  in  darkness  and  light ; 
in  heat  and  cold ;  in  the  ebb  and  flow  of 
waters;  in  male  and  female;  in  the  inspira- 
tion and  expiration  of  plants  and  animals; 
in  the  systole  and  diastole  of  the  heart;  in 
the  undulations  of  fluids  and  of  sound ;  in 
the  centrifugal  and  centripetal  gravity;  in 
electricity,  galvanism  and  chemical  affinity. 
Superinduce  magnetism  at  one  end  of  a 

5 


on  needle,  the  opposite  magnetism  takes  place 
Compensation  at  the  other  end.  If  the  south  attracts,  the 
north  repels.  To  empty  here,  you  must  con- 
dense there.  An  inevitable  dualism  bisects 
nature,  so  that  each  thing  is  a  half,  and 
suggests  another  thing  to  make  it  whole; 
as,  spirit, matter;  man,  woman;  subjective, 
objective;  in,  out;  upper,  under;  motion, 
rest ;  yea,  nay. 

Whilst  the  world  is  thus  dual,  so  is  every 
one  of  its  parts.  The  entire  system  of  things 
gets  represented  in  every  particle.  There  is 
somewhat  that  resembles  the  ebb  and  flow 
of  the  sea,  day  and  night,  man  and  woman, 
in  a  single  needle  of  the  pine,  in  a  kernel 
of  corn,  in  each  individual  of  every  animal 
tribe.  The  reaction,  so  grand  in  the  elements, 
is  repeated  within  these  small  boundaries. 
For  example,  in  the  animal  kingdom  the 
physiologist  has  observed  that  no  creatures 
are  favorites,  but  a  certain  compensation 
balances  every  gift  and  every  defect.  A  sur- 
plusage given  to  one  part  is  paid  out  of  a 
reduction  from  another  part  of  the  same 

6 


creature.  If  the  head  and  neck  are  enlarged,  <£&&w  on 
the  trunk  and  extremities  are  cut  short.  Compensation 
The  theory  of  the  mechanic  forces  is  an- 
other example.  What  we  gain  in  power  is 
lost  in  time,  and  the  converse.  The  periodic 
or  compensating  errors  of  the  planets  is 
another  instance.  The  influences  of  climate 
and  soil  in  political  history  are  another.  The 
cold  climate  invigorates.  The  barren  soil 
does  not  breed  fevers,  crocodiles,  tigers,  or 
scorpions. 

The  same  dualism  underlies  the  nature  and 
condition  of  man.  Every  excess  causes  a 
defect ;  every  defect  an  excess.  Every  sweet 
hath  its  sour;  every  evil  its  good.  Every 
faculty  which  is  a  receiver  of  pleasure  has 
an  equal  penalty  put  on  its  abuse.  It  is  to 
answer  for  its  moderation  with  its  life.  For 
every  grain  of  wit  there  is  a  grain  of  folly. 
For  every  thing  you  have  missed,  you  have 
gained  something  else;  and  for  every  thing 
you  gain,  you  lose  something.  If  riches  in- 
crease, they  are  increased  that  use  them.  If 
the  gatherer  gathers  too  much,  nature  takes 

7 


on  out  of  the  man  what  she  puts  into  his 
Compensation  chest ;  swells  the  estate,  but  kills  the  owner. 
Nature  hates  monopolies  and  exceptions. 
The  waves  of  the  sea  do  not  more  speedily 
seek  a  level  from  their  loftiest  tossing  than 
the  varieties  of  condition  tend  to  equalize 
themselves.  There  is  always  some  leveling 
circumstance  that  puts  down  the  overbear- 
ing, the  strong,  the  rich,  the  fortunate,  sub- 
stantially on  the  same  ground  with  all  others. 
Is  a  man  too  strong  and  fierce  for  society, 
and  by  temper  and  position  a  bad  citizen, 
— a  morose  ruffian,  with  a  dash  of  the 
pirate  in  him  ? — nature  sends  him  a  troop 
of  pretty  sons  and  daughters  who  are  get- 
ting along  in  the  dame's  classes  at  the  vil- 
lage school,  and  love  and  fear  for  them 
smooths  his  grim  scowl  to  courtesy.  Thus 
she  contrives  to  intenerate  the  granite  and 
feldspar,  takes  the  boar  out  and  puts  the 
lamb  in,  and  keeps  her  balance  true. 
The  farmer  imagines  power  and  place  are 
fine  things.  But  the  President  has  paid  dear 
for  his  White  House.  It  has  commonly  cost 


him  all  his  peace,  and  the  best  of  his  manly  CEggap  on 
attributes.  To  preserve  for  a  short  time  so  Compensation 
conspicuous  an  appearance  before  the  world, 
he  is  content  to  eat  dust  before  the  real 
masters  who  stand  erect  behind  the  throne. 
Or  do  men  desire  the  more  substantial  and 
permanent  grandeur  of  genius  ?  Neither  has 
this  an  immunity.  He,  who  by  force  of  will 
or  of  thought  is  great,  and  overlooks  thou- 
sands, has  the  responsibility  of  overlooking. 
With  every  influx  of  light  comes  new 
danger.  Has  he  light  ?  he  must  bear  witness 
to  the  light,  and  always  outrun  that  sym- 
pathy which  gives  him  such  keen  satisfac- 
tion, by  his  fidelity  to  new  revelations  of 
the  incessant  soul.  He  must  hate  father  and 
mother,  wife  and  child.  Has  he  all  that  the 
world  loves  and  admires  and  covets? — he 
must  cast  behind  him  their  admiration  and 
afflict  them  by  faithfulness  to  his  truth  and 
become  a  byword  and  a  hissing. 
This  Law  writes  the  laws  of  cities  and  na- 
tions. It  will  not  be  balked  of  its  end  in  the 
smallest  iota.  It  is  in  vain  to  build  or  plot 

9 


on  or  combine  against  it.  Things  refuse  to  be 
Compensation  mismanaged  long.  Res  nolunt  dm  male  ad- 
ministrari.  Though  no  checks  to  a  new  evil 
appear,  the  checks  exist,  and  will  appear. 
If  the  government  is  cruel,  the  governor's 
life  is  not  safe.  If  you  tax  too  high,  the  rev- 
enue will  yield  nothing.  If  you  make  the 
criminal  code  sanguinary,  juries  will  not 
convict.  Nothing  arbitrary,  nothing  artifi- 
cial can  endure.  The  true  life  and  satisfac- 
tions of  man  seem  to  elude  the  utmost 
rigors  or  felicities  of  condition,  and  to  es- 
tablish themselves  with  great  indifferency 
under  all  varieties  of  circumstance.  Under 
all  governments  the  influence  of  character 
remains  the  same, — in  Turkey  and  New 
England  about  alike.  Under  the  primeval 
despots  of  Egypt,  history  honestly  confesses 
that  man  must  have  been  as  free  as  culture 
could  make  him. 

These  appearances  indicate  the  fact  that 
the  universe  is  represented  in  every  one  of 
its  particles.  Every  thing  in  nature  contains 
all  the  powers  of  nature.  Every  thing  is 
10 


made  of  one  hidden  stuff;  as  the  naturalist  (Cggap  on 
sees  one  type  under  every  metamorphosis,  Compensation 
and  regards  a  horse  as  a  running  man,  a  fish 
as  a  swimming  man,  a  bird  as  a  flying  man, 
a  tree  as  a  rooted  man.  Each  new  form  re- 
peats not  only  the  main  character  of  the 
type,  but  part  for  part  all  the  details,  all  the 
aims,  furtherances,  hindrances,  energies 
and  whole  system  of  every  other.  Every 
occupation,  trade,  art,  transaction,  is  a  com- 
pend  of  the  world  and  a  correlative  of  every 
other.  Each  one  is  an  entire  emblem  of  hu- 
man life;  of  its  good  and  ill,  its  trials,  its 
enemies,  its  course  and  its  end.  And  each 
one  must  somehow  accommodate  the  whole 
man  and  recite  all  his  destiny. 
The  world  globes  itself  in  a  drop  of  dew. 
The  microscope  cannot  find  the  animalcule 
which  is  less  perfect  for  being  little.  Eyes, 
ears,  taste,  smell,  motion,  resistance,  appe- 
tite, and  organs  of  reproduction  that  take 
hold  on  eternity, — all  find  room  to  consist 
in  the  small  creature.  So  do  we  put  our 
life  into  every  act.  The  true  doctrine  of 

1! 


on  omnipresence  is  that  God  reappears  with 
Compensation  all  his  parts  in  every  moss  and  cobweb. 
The  value  of  the  universe  contrives  to 
throw  itself  into  every  point.  If  the  good 
is  there,  so  is  the  evil ;  if  the  affinity,  so  the 
repulsion;  if  the  force,  so  the  limitation. 
fl  Thus  is  the  universe  alive.  All  things  are 
moral.  That  soul  which  within  us  is  a  sen- 
timent, outside  of  us  is  a  law.  We  feel  its  in- 
spirations; out  there  in  history  we  can  see 
its  fatal  strength.  It  is  almighty.  All  nature 
feels  its  grasp.  "  It  is  in  the  world,  and  the 
world  was  made  by  it."  It  is  eternal,  but  it 
enacts  itself  in  time  and  space.  Justice  is 
not  postponed.  A  perfect  equity  adjusts  its 
balance  in  all  parts  of  life. "  The  dice  of  God 
are  always  ready  to  fall."  The  dice  of  God 
are  always  loaded.  The  world  looks  like  a 
multiplication-table,  or  a  mathematical  equa- 
tion, which,  turn  it  how  you  will,  balances 
itself.  Take  what  figure  you  will,  its  exact 
value,  nor  more  nor  less,  still  returns  to  you. 
Every  secret  is  told,  every  crime  is  pun- 
ished, every  virtue  rewarded,  every  wrong 

12 


redressed,  in  silence  and  certainty.  What  we  dEggap  on 
call  retribution  is  the  universal  necessity  by  Compensation 
which  the  whole  appears  wherever  a  part 
appears.  If  you  see  smoke,  there  must  be 
fire.  If  you  see  a  hand  or  a  limb,  you  know 
that  the  trunk  to  which  it  belongs  is  there 
behind. 

Every  act  rewards  itself,  or  in  other  words, 
integrates  itself,  in  a  twofold  manner:  first, 
in  the  thing,  or  in  real  nature;  and  sec- 
ondly, in  the  circumstance,  or  in  apparent 
nature.  Men  call  the  circumstance  the  retri- 
bution. The  causal  retribution  is  in  the  thing 
and  is  seen  by  the  soul.  The  retribution  in 
the  circumstance  is  seen  by  the  understand- 
ing; it  is  inseparable  from  the  thing,  but  is 
often  spread  over  a  long  time  and  so  does 
not  become  distinct  until  after  many  years. 
The  specific  stripes  may  follow  late  after 
the  offence,  but  they  follow  because  they 
accompany  it.  Crime  and  punishment  grow 
out  of  one  stem.  Punishment  is  a  fruit  that, 
unsuspected,  ripens  within  the  flower  of  the 
pleasure  which  concealed  it.  Cause  and 

13 


on  effect,  means  and  ends,  seed  and  fruit,  cannot 
Compengatton  be  severed ;  for  the  effect  already  blooms  in 
the  cause,  the  end  pre-exists  in  the  means, 
the  fruit  in  the  seed. 

Whilst  thus  the  world  will  be  whole  and 
refuses  to  be  disparted,  we  seek  to  act  par- 
tially, to  sunder,  to  appropriate ;  for  exam- 
ple,— to  gratify  the  senses  we  sever  the 
pleasure  of  the  senses  from  the  needs  of 
the  character.  The  ingenuity  of  man  has 
been  dedicated  to  the  solution  of  one  prob- 
lem,— how  to  detach  the  sensual  sweet,  the 
sensual  strong,  the  sensual  bright,  etc., 
from  the  moral  sweet,  the  moral  deep,  the 
moral  fair;  that  is,  again,  to  contrive  to  cut 
clean  off  this  upper  surface  so  thin  as  to 
leave  it  bottomless ;  to  get  a  one  end,  with- 
out an  other  end.  The  soul  says,  Eat ;  the 
the  body  would  feast.  The  soul  says,  The  man 
and  woman  shall  be  one  flesh  and  one  soul ; 
the  body  would  join  the  flesh  only.  The 
soul  says,  Have  dominion  over  all  things 
to  the  ends  of  virtue ;  the  body  would  have 
the  power  over  things  to  its  own  ends. 

14 


The  soul  strives  amain  to  live  and  work  (E0£a£  on 
through  all  things.  It  would  be  the  only  Compensation 
fact.  All  things  shall  be  added  unto  it, — 
power,  pleasure,  knowledge,  beauty.  The 
particular  man  aims  to  be  somebody;  to 
set  up  for  himself;  to  truck  and  higgle  for 
a  private  good ;  and,  in  particulars,  to  ride 
that  he  may  ride ;  to  dress  that  he  may  be 
dressed ;  to  eat  that  he  may  eat ;  and  to  gov- 
ern, that  he  may  be  seen.  Men  seek  to  be 
great;  they  would  have  offices,  wealth, 
power,  and  fame.  They  think  that  to  be 
great  is  to  get  only  one  side  of  nature  — 
the  sweet,  without  the  other  side, — the 
bitter. 

Steadily  is  this  dividing  and  detaching 
counteracted.  Up  to  this  day  it  must  be 
owned  no  projector  has  had  the  smallest 
success.  The  parted  water  re-unites  behind 
our  hand.  Pleasure  is  taken  out  of  pleasant 
things,  profit  out  of  profitable  things,  power 
out  of  strong  things,  the  moment  we  seek 
to  separate  them  from  the  whole.  We  can 
no  more  halve  things  and  get  the  sensual 

15 


on  good,  by  itself,  than  we  can  get  an  inside 
Compensation  that  shall  have  no  outside,  or  a  light  with- 
out a  shadow.  "Drive  out  nature  with  a 
fork,  she  comes  running  back." 
Life  invests  itself  with  inevitable  conditions, 
which  the  unwise  seek  to  dodge,  which  one 
and  another  brags  that  he  does  not  know, 
brags  that  they  do  not  touch  him ; — but  the 
brag  is  on  his  lips,  the  conditions  are  in  his 
soul.  If  he  escapes  them  in  one  part  they  at- 
tack him  in  another  more  vital  part.  If  he 
has  escaped  them  in  form  and  in  the  ap- 
pearance, it  is  because  he  has  resisted  his 
life  and  fled  from  himself,  and  the  retribu- 
tion is  so  much  death.  So  signal  is  the  fail- 
ure of  all  attempts  to  make  this  separation 
of  the  good  from  the  tax,  that  the  experi- 
ment would  not  be  tried, — since  to  try  it 
is  to  be  mad, — but  for  the  circumstance 
that  when  the  disease  began  in  the  will,  of 
rebellion  and  separation,  the  intellect  is  at 
once  infected,  so  that  the  man  ceases  to  see 
God  whole  in  each  object,  but  is  able  to  see 
the  sensual  allurement  of  an  object  and  not 

16 


see  the  sensual  hurt;  he  sees  the  mermaid's  (Etegap  on 
head  but  not  the  dragon's  tail,  and  thinks  Compensation 
he  can  cut  off  that  which  he  would  have 
from  that  which  he  would  not  have.  "  How 
secret  art  thou  who  dwellest  in  the  highest 
heavens  in  silence,  O  thou  only  great  God, 
sprinkling  with  an  unwearied  providence 
certain  penal  blindnesses  upon  such  as  have 
unbridled  desires! "<IThe  human  soul  is  true 
to  these  facts  in  the  painting  of  fable,  of  his- 
tory, of  law,  of  proverbs,  of  conversation.  It 
finds  a  tongue  in  literature  unawares.  Thus 
the  Greeks  called  Jupiter,  Supreme  Mind ; 
but  havingtraditionallyascribedtohim  many 
baseactions,they  involuntarilymade  amends 
to  Reason  by  tying  up  the  hands  of  so  bad  a 
god.  He  is  made  as  helpless  as  a  king  of 
England.  Prometheus  knows  one  secret 
which  Jove  must  bargain  for ;  Minerva,  an- 
other. He  cannot  get  his  own  thunders; 
Minerva  keeps  the  key  of  them : 

"  Of  all  the  gods,  I  only  know  the  keys 
That  ope  the  solid  doors  within  whose  vaults 
His  thunders  sleep." 

17 


on  A  plain  confession  of  the  in-working  of  the 
Compensation  All,  and  of  its  moral  aim.  The  Indian  myth- 
ology ends  in  the  same  ethics;  and  indeed 
it  would  seem  impossible  for  any  fable  to 
be  invented  and  get  any  currency  which 
was  not  moral.  Aurora  forgot  to  ask  youth 
for  her  lover,  and  though  so  Tithonus  is 
immortal,  he  is  old.  Achilles  is  not  quite 
invulnerable;  for  Thetis  held  him  by  the 
heel  when  she  dipped  him  in  the  Styx,  and 
the  sacred  waters  did  not  wash  that  part. 
Siegfried,  in  the  Nibelungen,  is  not  quite 
immortal,  for  a  leaf  fell  on  his  back  whilst 
he  was  bathing  in  the  Dragon's  blood,  and 
that  spot  which  it  covered  is  mortal.  And 
so  it  always  is.  There  is  a  crack  in  every 
thing  God  has  made.  Always  it  would  seem 
there  is  this  vindictive  circumstance  steal- 
ing in  at  unawares  even  into  the  wild  poesy 
in  which  the  human  fancy  attempted  to 
make  bold  holiday  and  to  shake  itself  free 
of  the  old  laws, — this  back-stroke,  this  kick 
of  the  gun,  certifying  that  the  law  is  fatal ; 
that  in  nature  nothing  can  be  given,  all 

18 


things  are  sold,  fl  This  is  that  ancient  doc-  <£00ap  on 
trine  of  Nemesis,  who  keeps  watch  in  the  Compensation 
Universe,  and  lets  no  off ence  go  unchastised. 
The  Furies,  they  said,  are  attendants  on 
Justice,  and  if  the  sun  in  heaven  should 
transgress  his  path,  they  would  punish  him. 
The  poets  related  that  stone  walls  and  iron 
swords  and  leathern  thongs  had  an  occult 
sympathy  with  the  wrongs  of  their  owners ; 
that  the  belt  which  Ajax  gave  Hector 
dragged  the  Trojan  hero  over  the  field  at 
the  wheels  of  the  car  of  Achilles,  and  the 
sword  which  Hector  gave  Ajax  was  that  on 
whose  point  Ajax  fell.  They  recorded  that 
when  the  Thasians  erected  a  statue  to  The- 
ogenes,  a  victor  in  the  games,  one  of  his 
rivals  went  to  it  by  night  and  endeavored 
to  throw  it  down  by  repeated  blows,  until 
at  last  he  moved  it  from  its  pedestal  and 
was  crushed  to  death  beneath  its  fall. 
This  voice  of  fable  has  in  it  somewhat  di- 
vine. It  came  from  thought  above  the  will 
of  the  writer.  That  is  the  best  part  of  each 
writer  which  has  nothing  private  in  it ;  that 

19 


on  is  the  best  part  of  each  which  he  does  not 
Compensation  know ;  that  which  flowed  out  of  his  con- 
stitution and  not  from  his  too-active  inven- 
tion ;  that  which  in  the  study  of  a  single 
artist  you  might  not  easily  find,  but  in  the 
study  of  many  you  would  abstract  as  the 
spirit  of  them  all.  Phidias  it  is  not,  but  the 
work  of  man  in  that  early  Hellenic  world 
that  I  would  know.  The  name  and  circum- 
stance of  Phidias,  however  convenient  for 
history,  embarasses  when  we  come  to  the 
highest  criticism.  We  are  to  see  that  which 
man  was  tending  to  do  in  a  given  period, 
and  was  hindered,  or,  if  you  will,  modified 
in  doing,  by  the  interfering  volitions  of 
Phidias,  of  Dante,  of  Shakespeare,  the  organ 
whereby  man  at  the  moment  wrought 
§  Still  more  striking  is  the  expression  of  this 
fact  in  the  proverbs  of  all  nations,  which 
are  always  the  literature  of  Reason,  or  the 
statements  of  an  absolute  truth  without 
qualification.  Proverbs,  like  the  sacred  books 
of  each  nation,  are  the  sanctuary  of  the 
Intuitions.  That  which  the  droning  world, 
20 


chained  to  appearances,  will  not  allow  the  dE00a#  on 
realist  to  say  in  his  own  words,  it  will  suff er  Compensation 
him  to  say  in  proverbs,  without  contradic- 
tion. And  this  law  of  laws,  which  the  pulpit, 
the  senate  and  the  college  deny,  is  hourly 
preached  in  all  markets  and  all  languages 
by  flights  of  proverbs,  whose  teaching  is 
as  true  and  as  omnipresent  as  that  of  birds 
and  flies. 

All  things  are  double,  one  against  another. 
— Tit  for  tat ;  an  eye  for  an  eye ;  a  tooth  for 
a  tooth;  blood  for  blood;  measure  for 
measure ;  love  for  love. — Give,  and  it  shall 
be  given  you. — He  that  watereth  shall  be 
watered  himself. — What  will  you  have? 
quoth  God;  pay  for  it  and  take  it. — Noth- 
ing venture,  nothing  have. — Thou  shalt  be 
paid  exactly  for  what  thou  hast  done,  no 
more,  no  less.— Who  doth  not  work  shall 
not  eat. — Harm  watch,  harm  catch. — Curses 
always  recoil  on  the  head  of  him  who 
imprecates  them.— If  you  put  a  chain  around 
the  neck  of  a  slave,  the  other  end  fastens 
itself  around  your  own. — Bad  counsel 

21 


on  confounds  the  adviser. — The  devil  is  an  ass. 
Compensation  q  It  is  thus  written,  because  it  is  thus  in 
life.  Our  action  is  overmastered  and  char- 
acterized above  our  will  by  the  law  of 
nature.  We  aim  at  a  petty  end  quite  aside 
from  the  public  good,  but  our  act  arranges 
itself  by  irresistible  magnetism  in  aline  with 
the  poles  of  the  world. 


22 


MAN  cannot  speak  but 
he  judges  himself  .With 
his  will,  or  against  his 
will,  he  draws  his  por- 
trait to  the  eye  of  his 
companions  by  every 
word.  Every  opinion  reacts  on  him 
who  utters  it.  It  is  a  thread-ball  thrown 
at  a  mark,  but  the  other  end  remains 
in  the  thrower's  bag.  Or,  rather,  it  is 
a  harpoon  thrown  at  the  whale,  un- 
winding, as  it  flies,  a  coil  of  cord  in 
the  boat,  and,  if  the  harpoon  is  not 
good,  or  not  well  thrown,  it  will  go 
nigh  to  cut  the  steersman  in  twain  or 
to  sink  the  boat. 

You  cannot  do  wrong  without  suf- 
fering wrong.  "  No  man  had  ever  a 
point  of  pride  that  was  not  injurious 
to  him,"  said  Burke.  The  exclusive  in 
fashionable  life  does  not  see  that  he 
excludes  himself  from  enjoyment,  in 

23 


on  the  attempt  to  appropriate  it.  The  exclu- 
Compntgatum  sionist  in  religion  does  not  see  that  he  shuts 
the  door  of  heaven  on  himself,  in  striving 
to  shut  out  others.  Treat  men  as  pawns  and 
ninepins,  and  you  shall  suffer  as  well  as 
they.  If  you  leave  out  their  heart,  you  shall 
lose  your  own.  The  senses  would  make 
things  of  all  persons ;  of  women,  of  chil- 
dren, of  the  poor.  The  vulgar  proverb,  "  I 
will  get  it  from  his  purse  or  get  it  from  his 
skin,"  is  sound  philosophy. 
All  infractions  of  love  and  equity  in  our 
social  relations  are  speedily  punished.  They 
are  punished  by  Fear.  Whilst  I  stand  in 
simple  relations  to  my  fellow-man,  I  have 
no  displeasure  in  meeting  him.  We  meet  as 
water  meets  water,  or  as  two  currents  of 
air  mix,  with  perfect  diffusion  and  inter- 
penetration  of  nature.  But  as  soon  as  there 
is  any  departure  from  simplicity  and  attempt 
at  half  ness,  OP  good  for  me  that  is  not  good 
for  him,  my  neighbor  feels  the  wrong;  he 
shrinks  from  me  as  far  as  I  have  shrunk 
from  him;  his  eyes  no  longer  seek  mine; 

24 


there  is  war  between  us;  there  is  hate  in  CEggap  on 
him  and  fear  in  me.  Compensation 

All  the  old  abuses  in  society,  the  great  and 
universal  and  the  petty  and  particular,  all 
unjust  accumulations  of  property  and 
power,  are  avenged  in  the  same  manner. 
Fear  is  an  instructor  of  great  sagacity,  and 
the  herald  of  all  revolutions.  One  thing  he 
always  teaches:  that  there  is  rottenness 
where  he  appears.  He  is  a  carrion  crow,  and 
though  you  see  not  well  what  he  hovers  for, 
there  is  death  somewhere.  Our  property  is 
timid,  our  laws  are  timid,  our  cultivated 
classes  are  timid.  Fear  for  ages  has  boded 
and  mowed  and  gibbered  over  government 
and  property.  That  obscene  bird  is  not 
there  for  nothing.  He  indicates  great  wrongs 
which  must  be  revised. 
Of  the  like  nature  is  that  expectation  of 
change  which  instantly  follows  the  sus- 
pension of  our  voluntary  activity.  The  terror 
of  cloudless  noon,  the  emerald  of  Polycrates, 
the  awe  of  prosperity,  the  instinct  which 
leads  every  generous  soul  to  impose  on 

25 


on  itself  tasks  of  a  noble  asceticism  and  vicari- 
Compengation  ous  virtue,  are  the  tremblings  of  the  balance 
of  justice  through  the  heart  and  mind  of  man. 
€1  Experienced  men  of  the  world  know  very 
well  that  it  is  best  to  pay  scot  and  lot  as 
they  go  along,  and  that  a  man  often  pays 
dear  for  a  small  frugality.  The  borrower 
runs  in  his  own  debt.  Has  a  man  gained 
anything  who  has  received  a  hundred 
favors  and  rendered  none?  Has  he  gained 
by  borrowing,  through  indolence  or  cun- 
ning, his  neighbor's  wares,  or  horses,  or 
money  ?  There  arises  on  the  deed  the  instant 
acknowledgment  of  benefit  on  the  one  part 
and  of  debt  on  the  other;  that  is,  of  supe- 
riority and  inferiority.  The  transaction  re- 
mains in  the  memory  of  himself  and  his 
neighbor;  and  every  new  transaction  alters 
according  to  its  nature  their  relation  to 
each  other.  He  may  soon  come  to  see  that 
he  had  better  have  broken  his  own  bones 
than  to  have  ridden  in  his  neighbor's  coach, 
and  that  "  the  highest  price  he  can  pay  for 
a  thing  is  to  ask  for  it." 

26 


A  wise  man  will  extend  this  lesson  to  all  (E00a#  on 
parts  of  life,  and  know  that  it  is  always  the  Compensation 
part  of  prudence  to  face  every  claimant,  and 
pay  every  just  demand  on  your  time,  your 
talents,  or  your  heart.  Always  pay;  for, 
first  or  last,  you  must  pay  your  entire 
debt.  Persons  and  events  may  stand  for 
a  time  between  you  and  justice,  but  it 
is  only  a  postponement.  You  must  pay  at 
last  your  own  debt.  If  you  are  wise,  you 
will  dread  a  prosperity  which  only  loads 
you  with  more.  Benefit  is  the  end  of  nature. 
But  for  every  benefit  which  you  receive,  a 
tax  is  levied.  He  is  great  who  confers  the 
most  benefits.  He  is  base — and  that  is  the 
one  base  thing  in  the  universe — to  receive 
favors  and  render  none.  In  the  order  of 
nature  we  cannot  render  benefits  to  those 
from  whom  we  receive  them,  or  only  seldom. 
But  the  benefit  we  receive  must  be  ren- 
dered again,  line  for  line,  deed  for  deed, 
cent  for  cent,  to  somebody.  Beware  of  too 
much  good  staying  in  your  hand.  It  will 
fast  corrupt  and  worm  worms.  Pay  it  away 

27 


on  quickly  in  some  sort.  <I  Labor  is  watched 
Compensation  over  by  the  same  pitiless  laws.  Cheapest, 
say  the  prudent,  is  the  dearest  labor.  What 
we  buy  in  a  broom,  a  mat,  a  wagon,  a  knife, 
is  some  application  of  good  sense  to  a 
common  want.  It  is  best  to  pay  in  your  land 
a  skilful  gardener,  or  to  buy  good  sense 
applied  to  gardening;  in  your  sailor,  good 
sense  applied  to  navigation ;  in  the  house, 
good  sense  applied  to  cooking,  sewing, 
serving ;  in  your  agent,  good  sense  applied 
to  accounts  and  affairs.  So  do  you  multiply 
your  presence,  or  spread  yourself  through- 
out your  estate.  But  because  of  the  dual 
constitution  of  things,  in  labor  as  in  life 
there  can  be  no  cheating.  The  thief  steals 
from  himself.  The  swindler  swindles  him- 
self. For  the  real  price  of  labor  is  knowledge 
and  virtue,  whereof  wealth  and  credit  are 
signs.  These  signs,  like  paper  money,  may 
be  counterfeited  or  stolen,  but  that  which 
they  represent,  namely,  knowledge  and  vir- 
tue, cannot  be  counterfeited  or  stolen.  These 
ends  of  labor  cannot  be  answered  but  by 

28 


real  exertions  of  the  mind,  and  in  obedience  (C00a#  on 
to  pure  motives.  The  cheat,  the  defaulter,  Compensation 
the  gambler,  cannot  extort  the  benefit,  can- 
not extort  the  knowledge  of  material  and 
moral  nature  which  his  honest  care  and 
pains  yield  to  the  operative.  The  law  of 
nature  is,  Do  the  thing,  and  you  shall  have 
the  power ;  but  they  who  do  not  the  thing 
have  not  the  power. 

Human  labor,  through  all  its  forms,  from 
the  sharpening  of  a  stake  to  the  construction 
of  a  city  or  an  epic,  is  one  immense  illus- 
tration of  the  perfect  compensation  of  the 
universe.  Everywhere  and  always  this  law 
is  sublime.  The  absolute  balance  of  Give 
and  Take,  the  doctrine  that  every  thing  has 
its  price,  and  if  that  price  is  not  paid,  not 
that  thing,  but  something  else,  is  obtained, 
and  that  it  is  impossible  to  get  anything 
without  its  price,  is  not  less  sublime  in  the 
columns  of  a  ledger  than  in  the  budgets  of 
states,  in  the  laws  of  light  and  darkness,  in 
all  the  action  and  reaction  of  nature.  I  can- 
not doubt  that  the  high  laws  which  each 

29 


on  man  sees  ever  implicated  in  those  processes 
Compensation  with  which  he  is  conversant,  the  stern 
ethics  which  sparkle  on  his  chisel-edge, 
which  are  measured  out  by  his  plumb  and 
foot-rule,  which  stand  as  manifest  in  the 
footing  of  the  shop-bill  as  in  the  history  of 
a  state, — do  recommend  to  him  his  trade, 
and  though  seldom  named,  exalt  his  busi- 
ness to  his  imagination. 
The  league  between  virtue  and  nature 
engages  all  things  to  assume  a  hostile  front 
to  vice.  The  beautiful  laws  and  substances 
of  the  world  persecute  and  whip  the  traitor. 
He  finds  that  things  are  arranged  for  truth 
and  benefit,  but  there  is  no  den  in  the  wide 
world  to  hide  a  rogue.  Commit  a  crime, 
and  the  earth  is  made  of  glass.  There  is  no 
such  thing  as  concealment.  Commit  a 
crime,  and  it  seems  as  if  a  coat  of  snow 
fell  on  the  ground,  such  as  reveals  in  the 
woods  the  track  of  every  partridge  and  fox 
and  squirrel  and  mole.  You  cannot  recall 
the  spoken  word,  you  cannot  wipe  out  the 
foot-track,  you  cannot  draw  up  the  ladder, 

30 


so  as  to  leave  no  inlet  or  clew.  Always  some  (Eggap  on 
damning  circumstance  transpires.  The  laws  Compensation 
and  substances  of  nature,  water,  snow, 
wind,  gravitation,  become  penalties  to  the 
thief. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  law  holds  with  equal 
sureness  for  all  right  action.  Love,  and  you 
shall  be  loved.  All  love  is  mathematically 
just,  as  much  as  the  two  sides  of  an  alge- 
braic equation.  The  good  man  has  absolute 
good,  which,  like  fire,  turns  every  thing  to 
its  own  nature,  so  that  you  cannot  do  him 
any  harm;  but  as  the  royal  armies  sent 
against  Napoleon,  when  he  approached,  cast 
down  their  colors,  and  from  enemies  became 
friends,  so  do  disasters  of  all  kinds,  as  sick- 
ness, offence,  poverty,  prove  benefactors. 

"  Winds  blow  and  waters  roll 
Strength  to  the  brave  and  power  and  deity, 
Yet  in  themselves  are  nothing." 

§  The  good  are  befriended  even  by  weak- 
ness and  defect.  As  no  man  had  ever  a  point 
of  pride  that  was  not  injurious  to  him,  so 
no  man  had  ever  a  defect  that  was  not 

31 


on  somewhere  made  useful  to  him.  The  stag 
Compensation  in  the  fable  admired  his  horns  and  blamed 
his  feet,  but  when  the  hunter  came,  his  feet 
saved  him,  and  afterwards,  caught  in  the 
thicket,  his  horns  destroyed  him.  Every  man 
in  his  lifetime  needs  to  thank  his  faults.  As 
no  man  thoroughly  understands  a  truth 
until  first  he  has  contended  against  it,  so 
no  man  has  a  thorough  acquaintance  with 
the  hindrances  or  talents  of  men  until  he 
has  suffered  from  the  one  and  seen  the 
triumph  of  the  other  over  his  own  want  of 
the  same.  Has  he  a  defect  of  temper  that 
unfits  him  to  live  in  society?  Thereby  he 
is  driven  to  entertain  himself  alone  and 
acquire  habits  of  self-help ;  and  thus,  like 
the  wounded  oyster,  he  mends  his  shell 
with  pearl. 

Our  strength  grows  out  of  our  weakness. 
Not  until  we  are  pricked  and  stung  and 
sorely  shot  at,  awakens  the  indignation 
which  arms  itself  with  secret  forces.  A  great 
man  is  always  willing  to  be  little.  Whilst 
he  sits  on  the  cushion  of  advantages,  he 

32 


goes  to  sleep.  When  he  is  pushed,  tor-  (E00ap  on 
mented,  defeated,  he  has  a  chance  to  learn  Compensation 
something ;  he  has  been  put  on  his  wits, 
on  his  manhood ;  he  has  gained  facts ;  learns 
his  ignorance ;  is  cured  of  the  insanity  of 
conceit;  has  got  moderation  and  real  skill. 
The  wise  man  always  throws  himself  on  the 
side  of  his  assailants.  It  is  more  his  inter- 
est than  it  is  theirs  to  find  his  weak  point. 
The  wound  cicatrizes  and  falls  off  from  him 
like  a  dead  skin,  and  when  they  would  tri- 
umph, lo  1  he  has  passed  on  invulnerable. 
Blame  is  safer  than  praise.  1  hate  to  be 
defended  in  a  newspaper.  As  long  as  all  that 
is  said,  is  said  against  me,  I  feel  a  certain 
assurance  of  success.  But  as  soon  as  honied 
words  of  praise  are  spoken  for  me,  I  feel  as 
one  that  lies  unprotected  before  his  ene- 
mies. In  general,  every  evil  to  which  we  do 
not  succumb  is  a  benefactor.  As  the  Sand- 
wich Islander  believes  that  the  strength  and 
valor  of  the  enemy  he  kills  passes  into  him- 
self, so  we  gain  the  strength  of  the  temp- 
tation we  resist. 

33 


on  The  same  guards  which  protect  us  from 
Compensation  disaster,  defect  and  enmity,  defend  us,  if 
we  will,  from  selfishness  and  fraud.  Bolts 
and  bars  are  not  the  best  of  our  institutions, 
nor  is  shrewdness  in  trade  a  mark  of  wis- 
dom. Men  suffer  all  their  life  long  under 
the  foolish  superstition  that  they  can  be 
cheated.  But  it  is  as  impossible  for  a  man 
to  be  cheated  by  any  one  but  himself,  as 
for  a  thing  to  be  and  not  to  be  at  the  same 
time.  There  is  a  third  silent  party  to  all  our 
bargains.  The  nature  and  soul  of  things 
takes  on  itself  the  guaranty  of  the  fulfil- 
ment of  every  contract,  so  that  honest 
service  cannot  come  to  loss.  If  you  serve  an 
ungrateful  master,  serve  him  the  more. 
Put  God  in  your  debt.  Every  stroke  shall 
be  repaid.  The  longer  the  payment  is  with- 
holden,  the  better  for  you ;  for  compound 
interest  on  compound  interest  is  the  rate 
and  usage  of  this  exchequer. 
The  history  of  persecution  is  a  history  of 
endeavors  to  cheat  nature,  to  make  water 
run  up  hill,  to  twist  a  rope  of  sand.  It  makes 

34 


no  difference  whether  the  actors  be  many  (E00a#  on 
or  one,  a  tyrant  or  a  mob.  A  mob  is  a  soci-  Compensation 
ety  of  bodies  voluntarily  bereaving  them- 
selves of  reason  and  traversing  its  work. 
The  mob  is  man  voluntarily  descending  to 
the  nature  of  the  beast.  Its  fit  hour  of  activ- 
ity is  night.  Its  actions  are  insane,  like  its 
whole  constitution.  It  persecutes  a  princi- 
ple ;  it  would  whip  a  right ;  it  would  tar 
and  feather  justice,  by  inflicting  fire  and 
outrage  upon  the  houses  and  persons  of 
those  who  have  these.  It  resembles  the  prank 
of  boys,  who  run  with  fire-engines  to  put 
out  the  ruddy  aurora  streaming  to  the  stars. 
The  inviolate  spirit  turns  their  spite  against 
the  wrongdoers.  The  martyr  cannot  be  dis- 
honored. Every  lash  inflicted  is  a  tongue  of 
fame ;  every  prison  a  more  illustrious  abode ; 
every  burned  book  or  house  enlightens  the 
world ;  every  suppressed  or  expunged  word 
reverberates  through  the  earth  from  side  to 
side.  The  minds  of  men  are  at  last  aroused ; 
reason  looks  out  and  justifies  her  own,  and 
malice  finds  all  her  work  in  vain.  It  is  the 

35 


on  whipper  who  is  whipped,  and  the  tyrant 
Compm0att0n  who  is  undone. 

Thus  do  all  things  preach  the  indifferency 
of  circumstances.  The  man  is  all.  Every 
thing  has  two  sides,  a  good  and  an  evil. 
Every  advantage  has  its  tax.  I  learn  to  be 
content.  But  the  doctrine  of  compensation 
is  not  the  doctrine  of  indifferency.  The 
thoughtless  say,  on  hearing  these  represen- 
tations: "What  boots  it  to  do  well?  there 
is  one  event  to  good  and  evil ;  if  I  gain  any 
good,  I  must  pay  for  it ;  if  I  lose  any  good, 
I  gain  some  other;  all  actions  are  indifferent." 
§  There  is  a  deeper  fact  in  the  soul  than 
compensation,  to  wit:  its  own  nature.  The 
soul  is  not  a  compensation,  but  a  life.  The 
soul  is.  Under  all  this  running  sea  of  circum- 
stance, whose  waters  ebb  and  flow  with 
perfect  balance,  lies  the  aboriginal  abyss  of 
real  Being.  Existence,  or  God,  is  not  a 
relation  or  a  part,  but  the  whole.  Being  is 
the  vast  affirmative,  excluding  negation,  self- 
balanced,  and  swallowing  up  all  relations, 
parts  and  times  within  itself.  Nature,  truth, 

36 


virtue,  are  the  influx  from  thence.  Vice  is  the  (Eggap  on 
absence  or  departure  of  the  same.  Nothing,  Compensation 
Falsehood,  may  indeed  stand  as  the  great 
Night  or  shade  on  which,  as  a  background, 
the  living  universe  paints  itself  forth ;  but 
no  fact  is  begotten  by  it ;  it  cannot  work, 
for  it  is  not.  It  cannot  work  any  good;  it 
cannot  work  any  harm.  It  is  harm,  inasmuch 
as  it  is  worse  not  to  be  than  to  be. 
We  feel  defrauded  of  the  retribution  due  to 
evil  acts,  because  the  criminal  adheres  to 
his  vice  and  contumacy,  and  does  not  come 
to  a  crisis  or  judgment  anywhere  in  visible 
nature.  There  is  no  stunning  confutation 
of  his  nonsense  before  men  and  angels. 
Has  he,  therefore,  outwitted  the  law  ?  Inas- 
much as  he  carries  the  malignity  and  the 
lie  with  him,  he  so  far  deceases  from  nature. 
In  some  manner  there  will  be  a  demonstra- 
tion of  the  wrong  to  the  understanding 
also ;  but,  should  we  not  see  it,  this  deadly 
deduction  makes  square  the  eternal  account. 
<I  Neither  can  it  be  said,  on  the  other  hand, 
that  the  gain  of  rectitude  must  be  bought 

37 


on  by  any  loss.  There  is  no  penalty  to  virtue ; 
Compensation  no  penalty  to  wisdom;  they  are  proper 
additions  of  being.  In  a  virtuous  action,  I 
properly  am;  in  a  virtuous  act,  I  add  to  the 
world ;  I  plant  into  deserts  conquered  from 
Chaos  and  Nothing,  and  see  the  darkness 
receding  on  the  limits  of  the  horizon.  There 
can  be  no  excess  to  love,  none  to  knowl- 
edge, none  to  beauty,  when  these  attri- 
butes are  considered  in  the  purest  sense. 
The  soul  refuses  all  limits.  It  affirms  in  man 
always  an  Optimism,  never  a  Pessimism. 
fl  His  life  is  a  progress,  and  not  a  station. 
His  instinct  is  trust.  Our  instinct  uses 
"more"  and  "less"  in  application  to  man, 
always  of  the  presence  of  the  soul,  and  not 
of  its  absence;  the  brave  man  is  greater 
than  the  coward ;  the  true,  the  benevolent, 
the  wise,  is  more  a  man,  and  not  less,  than 
the  fool  and  knave.  There  is,  therefore,  no 
tax  on  the  good  of  virtue,  for  that  is  the 
incoming  of  God  himself,  or  absolute  ex- 
istence, without  any  comparative.  All  ex- 
ternal good  has  its  tax,  and  if  it  came  without 

38 


desert  or  sweat,  has  no  root  in  me,  and  the  (Cggap  on 
next  wind  will  blow  it  away.  But  all  the  Compensation 
good  of  nature  is  the  soul's,  and  may  be 
had  if  paid  for  in  nature's  lawful  coin,  that 
is,  by  labor  which  the  heart  and  the  head 
allow.  I  no  longer  wish  to  meet  a  good  I 
do  not  earn ;  for  example,  to  find  a  pot  of 
buried  gold,  knowing  that  it  brings  with  it 
new  responsibility.  I  do  not  wish  more 
external  goods, — neither  possessions,  nor 
honors,  nor  powers,  nor  persons.  The  gain 
is  apparent;  the  tax  is  certain.  But  there  is 
no  tax  on  the  knowledge  that  the  compen- 
sation exists,  and  that  it  is  not  desirable  to 
dig  up  treasure.  Herein  I  rejoice  with  a 
serene  eternal  peace.  I  contract  the  bound- 
aries of  possible  mischief.  I  learn  the  wisdom 
of  St.  Bernard:  "Nothing  can  work  me 
damage  except  myself;  the  harm  that  I 
sustain,  I  carry  about  with  me,  and  never 
am  a  real  sufferer  but  by  my  own  fault." 
9  In  the  nature  of  the  soul  is  the  compen- 
sation for  the  inequalities  of  condition.  The 
radical  tragedy  of  nature  seems  to  be  the 

39 


on  distinction  of  More  and  Less.  How  can  Less 
Compnigatfon  not  feel  the  pain ;  how  not  feel  indignation 
or  malevolence  towards  More?  Look  at 
those  who  have  less  faculty,  and  one  feels 
sad,  and  knows  not  well  what  to  make  of 
it.  Almost  he  shuns  their  eye ;  he  fears  they 
will  upbraid  God.  What  should  they  do  ? 
It  seems  a  great  injustice.  But  see  the  facts 
nearly,  and  these  mountainous  inequalities 
vanish.  Love  reduces  them  as  the  sun  melts 
the  iceberg  in  the  sea.  The  heart  and  soul 
of  all  men  being  one,  this  bitterness  of  His 
and  Mine  ceases.  His  is  mine.  I  am  my 
brother  and  my  brother  is  me.  If  I  feel  over- 
shadowed and  outdone  by  great  neighbors, 
I  can  yet  love;  I  can  still  receive;  and  he 
that  loveth,  maketh  his  own  the  grandeur 
he  loves.  Thereby  I  make  the  discovery 
that  my  brother  is  my  guardian,  acting  for 
me  with  the  friendliest  designs,  and  the 
estate  I  so  admired  and  envied  is  my  own. 
It  is  the  eternal  nature  of  the  soul  to  appro- 
priate and  make  all  things  its  own.  Jesus 
and  Shakespeare  are  fragments  of  the  soul, 

40 


and  by  love  I  conquer  and  incorporate  them  (E00a£  on 
in  my  own  conscious  domain.  His  virtue, —  Compensation 
is  not  that  mine?  His  wit, — if  it  cannot  be 
made  mine,  it  is  not  wit. 
Such,  also,  is  the  natural  history  of  calamity. 
The  changes,  which  break  up  at  short  inter- 
vals the  prosperity  of  men,  are  advertise- 
ments of  a  nature  whose  law  is  growth. 
Evermore  it  is  the  order  of  nature  to  grow ; 
and  every  soul  is,  by  this  intrinsic  necessity, 
quitting  its  whole  system  of  things,  its 
friends  and  home  and  laws  and  faith,  as  the 
shell-fish  crawls  out  of  its  beautiful  but 
stony  case,  because  it  no  longer  admits  of 
its  growth,  and  slowly  forms  a  new  house. 
In  proportion  to  the  vigor  of  the  individual, 
these  revolutions  are  frequent,  until  in 
some  happier  mind  they  are  incessant,  and 
all  worldly  relations  hang  very  loosely  about 
him,  becoming,  as  it  were,  a  transparent 
fluid  membrane,  through  which  the  living 
form  is  always  seen,  and  not,  as  in  most 
men,  an  indurated  heterogeneous  fabric  of 
many  dates  and  of  no  settled  character,  in 

41 


on  which  the  man  is  imprisoned.  Then  there 
Compensation  can  be  enlargement,  and  the  man  of  to-day 
scarcely  recognizes  the  man  of  yesterday. 
And  such  should  be  the  outward  biography 
of  man  in  time,  a  putting  off  of  dead  cir- 
cumstances day  by  day,  as  he  renews  his 
raiment  day  by  day.  But  to  us,  in  our  lapsed 
estate,  resting,  not  advancing,  resisting,  not 
co-operating  with  the  divine  expansion, 
this  growth  comes  by  shocks. 
We  cannot  part  with  our  friends.  We  can- 
not let  our  angels  go.  We  do  not  see  that 
they  only  go  out  that  archangels  may  come 
in.  We  are  idolaters  of  the  old.  We  do  not 
believe  in  the  riches  of  the  soul,  in  its 
proper  eternity  and  omnipresence.  We  do 
not  believe  there  is  any  force  in  to-day  to 
rival  or  re-create  that  beautiful  yesterday. 
We  linger  in  the  ruins  of  the  old  tent 
where  once  we  had  bread  and  shelter  and 
organs,  nor  believe  that  the  spirit  can  feed, 
cover,  and  nerve  us  again.  We  cannot  again 
find  aught  so  dear,  so  sweet,  so  graceful. 
But  we  sit  and  weep  in  vain.  The  voice  of 

42 


the  Almighty  saith,  "  Up  and  onward  for-  (Eggap  on 
evermore  I "  We  cannot  stay  amid  the  ruins.  Compensation 
Neither  will  we  rely  on  the  New ;  and  so 
we  walk  ever  with  reverted  eyes,  like  those 
monsters  who  look  backwards. 
And  yet  the  compensations  of  calamity  are 
made  apparent  to  the  understanding  also, 
after  long  intervals  of  time.  A  fever,  a 
mutilation,  a  cruel  disappointment,  a  loss  of 
wealth,  a  loss  of  friends,  seems  at  the 
moment  unpaid  loss,  and  unpayable.  But 
the  sure  years  reveal  the  deep  remedial 
force  that  underlies  all  facts.  The  death  of 
a  dear  friend,  wife,  brother,  lover,  which 
seemed  nothing  but  privation,  somewhat 
later  assumes  the  aspect  of  a  guide  or  genius; 
for  it  commonly  operates  revolutions  in  our 
way  of  life,  terminates  an  epoch  of  infancy 
or  of  youth  which  was  waiting  to  be  closed, 
breaks  up  a  wonted  occupation,  or  a  house- 
hold, or  style  of  living,  and  allows  the 
formation  of  new  ones  more  friendly  to 
the  growth  of  character.  It  permits  or  con- 
strains the  formation  of  new  acquaintances 

43 


on  and  the  reception  of  new  influences  that 
Compensation  prove  of  the  first  importance  to  the  next 
years ;  and  the  man  or  woman  who  would 
have  remained  a  sunny  garden-flower,  with 
no  room  for  its  roots  and  too  much  sun- 
shine for  its  head,  by  the  falling  of  the 
walls  and  the  neglect  of  the  gardener,  is 
made  the  banian  of  the  forest,  yielding  shade 
and  fruit  to  wide  neighborhoods  of  men. 


44 


HERE  ENDETH  THE  ENNOBLING  ESSAY  ON 
COMPENSATION,  AS  WRITTEN  BY  RALPH 
WALDO  EMERSON,  BORDERS  AND  INITIALS 
DESIGNED  BY  ROYCROFT  ARTISTS,  AND 
THE  WHOLE  DONE  INTO  A  PRINTED  BOOK 
BY  THE  ROYCROFTERS,  AT  THEIR  SHOP 
WHICH  IS  IN  EAST  AURORA,  NEW  YORK, 
U.S.A.,  IN  JANUARY,  ANNO  CHRISTI,  MCMIV 


ROYCROF; 


<l*. 


